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24 February 2009

Baking as Craft, a {tortured} love affair.

Baking. Art, Craft, Alchemy, Arithmetic, Science, Intuition, Passion.
Baking.I'm married to it. Can't shake it. Leave it, go back. Forsake it. Take it back. Throw it in the river, say a prayer. Find it on my pillow in the morning.

Dream it, think it, feel it. Baking.O Baking, who art thou?Why do you torture me so? Take me deep into the water or leave me adrift. But please, make up your damn mind.

Baking. I will love you always. You never cease to amaze me. Delight me. Flirt me right back into your body. Even when I know it's a really bad idea. Even when I know Bad Things Will Happen.

You could say it's frivolous. Pleasure for no reason. But for sugary flowers; a slap of frosting; quiet hedgerows of hand sculpted leaves; thousands of layers of flour caught mid waft by creamy butter and seared by steam; sugar in every variation from hard sharp hot molecule to midstream water clarity and then shattering razor caramel, pulled like yoga pose toffee or glass sculpture caught mid ballet act. Sugar, forever muse, never wife.

What a saving grace this has been but has not always felt like, the inability to "unlock" it, tame it, know it, figure it all out. In my darkest of days, my insane level of curiousity has been the thing which has saved me. Thank you for reminding me.

I have just given breath to my own modest food/words project, and as I've stayed up eleven nights in a row, brain spinning by the new world I've found, I am humbled by the sweet gifts that so many food-loving writers are giving me each day through their own sites. So, thank you.

So that's what it feels like to be inspired by a muse! I had dinner with your parents, and your uncle & aunt, Patrick and Gladys last night (I spent a week in Callan last summer), and they told me about your blog. Love the poetry of your post. I just started blogging at MindfulEats.com (also about food but a different slant). If you have time to check it out, let me know what you think!